Royal Albert Hall Video

After posting just a little while ago this morning, I thought I'd add this little video that I filmed on my camera. I've never filmed with it before and didn't even realise that's what I was doing to start with, so it's out of focus and pretty crap. But thought my Mum and Dad would appreciate it.
Hi Mum and Dad xxx

The Royal Albert Hall

Yes, my baby is actually admidst that little lot : )
This is what we could see when we got to our seats last night. Well almost, the photo was taken during the performance. When we arrived just about all 775 children were waving to their parents. It was very sweet. My friend who we went with had her 7 yr old son with her and he wanted to see his big brother who was singing too. She said 'find Jack and I'll give you £10'.
He did actually find Jack (and got the £10) Should've see the expression on my friend's face : )
Hollie is on the left side.

Third down row from the top, from the right she's ninth in. She was so excited when she spotted us. We make bunny ears with our hands on our heads when we wave to each other, so I was so chuffed when she started doing this. I knew she was actually seeing us.
The performance was amazing. The kids were fantastic. A great evening : )


However 50mins before I had to collect Louis from school before then heading off to London, Amanda set a quick challenge over at The Studio.
Make a LO using only black and white with one other colour.
I was actually scrapping at the time, so decided to give it a go quickly before heading out. I'm sure I work better under pressure. I instantly thought black and white photo, the rest will happen. I had this photo, taken back in 2002. I just couldn't find the inspiration to scrap it. And then this happened. I'm quite pleased with it.
I love that photo with my baby Louis : )

The cyber charity crop starts tomorrow night 7pm UK time at The Studio.
Please come and take a nose, the inspiration will be jaw dropping, the prizes to die for, it will be loads of fun and for a great cause too. So if you haven't stopped by, please do.

I think it's latte time xx

Today I .....

.....have finished this LO.
It's the first photo I've scrapped of Dad since he left on 1st Nov. I love how is is with the kids. They all love him so much. He's just so silly and loves spongebob. An instant winner with them : )

I've used the recent Scarlet lime kit and the latest sketch from Sketchy Thursdays.
If you haven't visited, go take a look.

Today is the day that Hollie performs with her school at The Royal Albert Hall. In fact, she may well be there now. The school coach was collecting them at 12.30. We are leaving at 4.30, still need to decide what to wear.
She was one very excited bunny this morning : )

A Brand New Week

After a sad week last week and a busy weekend it feels good to start a new week. No huge plans except for going to watch Hollie perform with the school choir at The Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday.

I forgot all about the above LO I made last month. Another scrap lift contest at Cocoa Daisy.
I love doing these speedy LO's. I say I don't like working under pressure, but I often produce my fave LO's when I do.
A bit of spray misting and some photos from a fun afternoon at Richmond Park back in August. Seems like such a long time ago now.

Have a Happy Monday xx

Just Under a Week until......

The Studio kicks off with the Charity Extravaganza.
Have you signed up yet?
We start on Friday 13th November with challenges ongoing through to Sunday 15th November.
Not only is this a great cause but it will be heaps of fun too. Challenges every 2 hrs by the most amazing designers with the most amazing prizes to be won.
Don't miss out, go and sign up.

Better late than never, I did the Sketchy Thursday challenge this week and forgot to upload. Silly me. So here it is. Using the Cocoa Daisy kit and some 2006 photos.

Fireworks for us tonight. Fingers crossed it stays dry. Followed by X Factor when we get back.
Yay to Daniel and Booooo to Jedward : )

My latest Mini Book

First off, I'll start my blogging off with my happy news. We got tickets yesterday to Green Days Wembley gig next June. Yay!!! So excited already : )

I wanted to show my latest mini book make today.
I got sent the Road Map papers, stickers and little cards from Papermaze. Whenever I see the October Afternoon collections I instantly tune into a project rather than just a LO. It's almost a sin to split everything up as it all fits in so nicely together and to me they always scream out minibook.

I love where we live. I never fully appreciated it until just last year really when we got a little dog, so it's taken me 10 years to properly explore the area on foot. Our walks our now a regular family thing and we are lucky enough to have so many beautiful areas all surrounding us that are reached by foot.



So that's what I decided to make this book about. These are just a few pages.



For more details on how this was made, visit the papermaze blog.
All materials can be bought here.

It's a rainy day here again. I'm so bloody short that the back of my jeans get drenched whilst on the school run, so I end up stripping off when I get back home, hanging my jeans on the radiator to dry and putting a clean pair on whilst inside.

Think I will get a bunch of work out of the way today so maybe I can scrap gulit free later on : )
Have a good day xx

A Rollercoaster of a Week

What a week, that's all I can say. So many ups and downs in such a short time.
Dad arrived on the 24th Oct. We greeted him at Heathrow as a surprise. He didn't know we were going to be there. We met my sis at 7am in Terminal 4, we had my brother too, my hubby 2 kids and my sis with her hubby and 3 kids. Dad hadn't seen the baby of the family as my sis hadn't had her when Dad left last year and baby is now 13mth, so that was really special too.
The kids were very patient standing with their banners waiting : )
It was so good to see him arrive. We've all had the most amazing week together. We've visited our hometown Oxford, we had a Christmas Day, we've had nice walks, breakfast out, a visit to the zoo, been trick or treating, played loads of games, it's just been so so much fun. We were all devastated when Dad left on Sunday. Each year I'm sure it gets harder rather than easier and takes me longer to pull myself together.

Onto something more cheery now.....these gorgeous men : )


The middle one in particular. Billie Joe Armstrong. Isn't he just the most gorgeous man ever????
(Sorry Ade, but I know you understand) Ade and I went and saw Green Day at the O2 on 24th Oct and it was just the most amazing concert ever. I'm so pleased that Ade enjoyed it as it's me the one that's the big Green Day fan. I think Ade loves them almost as much as me now (maybe not entirely in the same way) It really was such a good show and we had great seats too. I feel even more besotted than before. I've been following this band since 1994. It was my first visit to USA. Dad had just moved there and Green Day were played loads on MTV. I ended up getting a copy of Dookie to bring home and have loved them ever since.
They announced a couple more gigs in UK next June. Presale tickets go on sale today at 3pm. We are so hoping to get tickets for the Wembley Stadium show. Fingers Crossed xx

And now onto scrapping. Something that I haven't done much of recently. I need to get myself back into it. It's only just been over a week, but feels longer.
In the meantime I have this LO to show that's the new challenge over on The Studio.



The lovely Shimelle is this months Special Guest. Pop along to join in with this months challenge which involves a sketch and some bling and see what everyone else has come up with.

Lots of Love xx

Cocoa Daisy Has Arrived

And I am so pleased : )
It arrived yesterday afternoon. Hollie went to a friends's for tea and Louis was happy playing in here whilst I scrapped. I managed to make these really quickly. In the space of 1hr30.


We love going to the panto before Christmas. It's a great way to start the festivities. In 2007 the kids dressed up to go to PeterPan. Last year Hollie felt too old to do that : (

I found this photo yesterday that's been in the 'to scrap' folder for some time. It was taken in 2007 whilst we were in Florida. Noticing her little round face made me realise how much she's changes since then.

I'm feeling pretty stressed out today. Lots of preparing ready for Dad on Saturday and a houseful too. Why did I offer for everyone to stay with me?????

Oh for the love of latte

Hi there !!!
Thank you so much for all your lovely comments, makes me smile : )
It's autumn now and I must say, I love this change of season. I feel so cozy and can't wait for Christmas. This is my fave time of year and I feel so happy.

I completely forgot to share with you what we did over at Cocoa Daisy recently.
Ronda organised a scraplift challenge. A bit like chinese whispers. We had 2 teams, both of which starts with the first person on the list being shown the same LO. They then go on to scraplift the LO and then email their LO to Ronda who then emails that second LO to the next person on the list. There are 7 players on each team. The first team to complete is the winning team. It was so much fun and such a laugh. My LO is above.

I got my email just minutes before doing the school run, typical. That's an hour gone, so came home and inbetween sorting out the kids and making tea etc.... I think I had my LO made and emailed within about 3hrs. Was quite pleased with that turn around. And our team went on to win...yay!! It did help though that a member on the other team went on holiday and didn't tell anyone, kinda caused a slight delay : )
If you want to see what both teams came up with visit here:
Scraplift reveal


This next LO was another that I made on my scrap retreat.
I just can't watch when they play in the playground. Makes me feel sick and I get wobbly knees. Didn't do stuff like that when I was little. Just too scary. Liked my feet firmly on the ground.
Ade on the other hand gets well in there and finds it funny. I'm sure they all do it to make me go wobbly.


And this one is the latest sketch from Sketchy Thursdays.
I quite liked it and then you know when you carry on adding and you wished you'd stopped. That's the feeling I get with this one.
Why did I add that stupid piece of red felty strip????? And that brad all alone???
What was I thinking???? Should've just left it as it was.


Went and got my nails done first thing today. Something else I can cross off this weeks to-do list.
I also stopped off at costa coffee before I headed back to the car. I'm really missing my latte. I bought a lovely posh coffee machine at the beginning of the year. I buy costa coffee and have that costa experience at least twice daily. I love it and have to admit, need it too. The bloody machine leaks though and has been making watery latte. Not good. Sent it off to get fixed, it got returned 2 weeks later to still produce pond loads of water over the work surface. So it's back being fixed again and we are now into week 2. I miss it soooooo much.
My nearest costa/starbucks is 4 miles away though and both in town centres. Not somewhere you can just drive by to pick up. So I asked for extra hot to take away today and was so pleased when I got home earlier that it was still lovely and hot. I just want another one now : (
I really am low maintence honest. Just need hugs, lattes and a hot water bottle in the evenings to keep me happy. That's not too much to ask is it?!!

Can't believe how much I've gone on today. Guess I better get back to work.
As my MIL would say 'this won't get the baby bathed'.
Lots of love xx

Bitten by the Bug

I just can't stop scrappin' again. After a busy summer with not much time for 'me' I've definitely got the bug again and find myself with a couple of LO's on the go constantly.

I had a lovely surprise on Friday when my Scarletlime kit arrived. It's never come this early in the month before. Naturally I cut straight into it and made the LO above.
It's the new challenge from Butterfly Crafts. 3 of my fave scrappy friends made the DT last month, Claire, Fay and Elina, so I can see myself doing more of these challenges now to support them.
The challenge is to scrap your life changing moment. I've scrapped my time just before I married Ade.


And here are 2 of the LO's that I made whilst on my scrappy weekend with the girls at the beggining of the month using last months Scarletlime kit.

Hollie is wanting more and more indepence these days. Silly little things like when we went to a packed Mcdonalds back in the May half term with my sis and her lot, we found a table for 2 at the window and let the 2 girls eat there whilst the rest of us sat on the ground outside. Now we were right there by them with the window between us, but this made them feel very grown up
: )


The novelty still hasn't worn off with my two being at the same school. I love it. Life feels so much easier now. No rushing from school to school, no more sitting in traffic, no more desperatley trying to find a non existing parking space, no more pinking Hollie up late from school everyday as Louis was let out late and it was impossible to get to Hollie in 5mins, no more 1 hr long stressed out school run....life is bliss. We are walking most days and it feels good : )
Here they are on their first day together.


It's been quite a peaceful weekend. Managed to get lots of sorting out done going through all my old kits. The kids thought they were in craft heaven. They were like little vulchers taking bits of papers, ribbons etc and ended up making some LO's themselves yesterday.

My Dad's arriving on Saturday from USA. It's been over a year since I last saw him, so lots of organising and preparing this week. I'm going to have my little brother, sister, her hubby and their 3 kids all staying with us for the week....am I crazy : )